Synopsis

Haruna Wakakusa and Yamada become friends after she saves him several times from her boyfriend's constant bullying. Through him she gets to know Kozue Yoshikawa, a fellow student who also models professionally. The three emotionally stunted teens' lives briefly yet intensely intertwine for one semester before splintering from the aftereffects of one disastrous night. For both Wakakusa and Yamada, their emotional awakening fosters an unlikely friendship between the two battered souls.

When Okazaki draws a face, whether she scales back on the lines to make it really comedyish or deformed, or when she draws it full to make it stylish/traumatic, she hits the emotions of the character's perfectly.

The thing about the Okazaki face is that it never screams over-romanticism. When Okazaki draws a face she doesn't layer the emotions with flair the same way just about every other anime drawer does (not saying that that's bad, just saying that she doesn't do it) but aims at showing human grief in all its trauma and sometimes ridiculousness.

Okazaki can also very easily switch from grief or
fuckedupness to lightness at a snap. Contrast whatever happens at the Riverbed at the climactic finale with Kozue's extremely joyously happy face when she gets the phone call. (Kozue is life, Kozue is love)

The neutral position of an Okazaki face is a kind of stylish adolescent boredom.

If you haven't guessed, Kozue is the Kozue from Helter Skelter.

Okazaki only draws necessary detail, but when she goes all out (with her full shot of the riverbed for example, or her night-time cityscapes) she really aims to go all out.

Regardless of whether all these people are horrible unlikeable people or not, the main thing is that Okazaki draws actual people.

There's a whole lot of underlying social stuff involved that isn't really so special for any non-Japanese modernized society but can only be given light in the special Japanese circumstance of the Kogal movement and the Bubble economy and Enjo Kousai and all that Neo-Japanisme stuff.

I don't think there's anything that can be called Love in these pages, even between Yamada and Wakakusa. Just the aching need to be saved from oneself.

Okazaki probably doesn't believe in karma though there's one instance of poetic justice being wrought in the whole story. The self destruction of a narrow mind through its own superficiality and solipsism.

There's this look at Kozue and Yamada give at the end of whole finale towards Wakakusa which seems to transmit that quite frankly it probably isn't going to ever get better and all the horrible things that they're going through aren't going to ever stop but they couldn't care less anyway because to them its just another one of those things they have to get through.

Okazaki's characters are seeking the kind of shattered happiness that only exist in fragments in a world shaped by banal surfaces and horrific sewers of pain.

Kozue is the best bulimic screwed-up character who just takes it as she goes and screw all her personal problems because she's just going to move on and do the shit she wants even if there's this gaping void inside her. She looks at the world with probably a detached amusement.

rivers edge was a beautiful story about friendship love and getting through while it also portrays not too hardcore psychological problems. haruna our heroine meets very weird friends and is like a i don't care i can take it but strong character. while yamada is weird yet strong and is a homo. kozue our model loves to eat never gets fat she throws it all up after. she also likes haruna. theses three kids walk the path of friendship and life.

This story features LGBT scenes and has a splash of shounen-ai and shoujo-ai.

Wakakusa, Haruna is in highschool [we don’t really know which grade, only that she’s a senpai] and she’s doing well. Enter Yamada-kun [the quiet, pretty boy] and suddenly, it’s like there’s no ice-cream in the world.
Things go downhill fast, and when I mean fast I mean within a volume things go from ‘I’m doing good’ to ‘why the Hell am I here?! Wait a minute… Is there Hell anyways?!’
And I’m just sitting there thinking: please make sense as we progress. Please make sense as we progress.
Guess what?

It DIDN’T make sense as the story
progressed.

First of all, we need to talk about the art which is surprisingly not mainstream. And although it doesn’t stick with the concepts of detail and proportion, it definitely adds that surreal edge the story is trying to create successfully. There are no sparkly side-effects (for which we are all grateful, I’m sure) so that means that the reader must be willing to try and get accustomed to a different style of illustrating.

The plot in the story tries to showcase the problems and pressures teenagers are faced with (generally while they are in highschool). Being honest, it's not a really innovative or original idea but it may perhaps be called a noble cause.

Now that I’ve pointed that out, I must also say that all that work went down the filthy drain because…

Why can’t you just tell me that it’s wrong!
I get it, ‘the author is trying to subversively, submarinely, subatomically, sub-whatever-ly try and INSINUATE that the reader SHOULD find out that what the characters are doing is wrong.’
Okay, what’s wrong with pointing that out?

I’m not stupid, honestly; I’m not saying dumb down your plot or anything. In fact, I LIKE complex plots; I just hate it, when you know,
YOU TRY AND MAKE A MONA LISA OUT OF A DOODLE!
{Even though I don't find the Mona Lisa all that attractive but you know what I mean}

Just spell it out for me.

If you’re trying to spread the message that teenage girls shouldn’t become prostitutes for expensive products: you are probably not getting the message across if no one is going to understand that there is a big X on the scene where she starts working her prostitute prowess.
If you’re trying to say that teenage guys shouldn’t become gay and start selling themselves to sick men for dough: then why don’t you say that EXPLICITELY.

Spare us that implicit mumbo-jumbo; if I wanted subliminal messages, I’d watch TV, listen to music or better yet, go to the cinema. I’m not here to try and actually remember that I shouldn’t have necrophiliac urges when you’re showing me people who like staring at dead people and find it relaxing.

And no, don’t you start with that ‘Maz-Maz can see dead people!’ stuff, because I’m being serious. Deadly.

For example:

If I’m trying to stop you from eating genetically-modified goods, I’m not gonna start talking about that awesome new Bugatti that just hit the market am I? And then point out that: the probably less economically well-off people who probably made that shade of paint by the gallons are probably broke and barely have enough time to sleep so they have to run to a fast food joint for a meal, which leads to them getting sick and dying slowly from having weird experimental chemicals in their body as they’re unable to eat organic stuff since it costs a goldmine and a half,
And THAT ladies and gentlemen is why you shouldn’t eat GM foods.

Unless, I want you to get completely and utterly confused.

However, the story also goes all existential and stuff, and that’s fine.
If you don’t know why you’re here or you’re religiously-frustrated; you can connect with the characters and feel their pain as your own…
Just before you try and kill yourself.

And if you’re not having existential doubts then unless you’re completely sure of yourself; prepare to be a lost and wandering atheist who doesn’t know whether they’re alive or not who then tries to contact aliens through mental concentration…
Wooooah! Sounds exciting…
I know.

Overall, I’m not saying that I’m a complete and utter hater and I’m not saying that I’m gonna recommend this either. I may acknowledge and respect the writer’s ideas and intentions but that doesn’t mean I agree with the way they tried to portray them.

So peeps, if you feel lost and confused; ask for help or well, message me.

If you feel pressured; talk about it with another human being (underline the human being part, if you start talking to trees that doesn't count) or again, message me (I'm full of surprises ya know).

And for the love of peace, if you find a dead rotting corpse don't stare at it:
CALL THE POLICE!